Each composition centers on a single bloom – lily of the valley, centifolia rose, and jasmine. They do not allude or suggest – each composition is a precise rendering, crafted to reveal the flower’s true character in its most elemental form. These are the very flowers Christian Dior cherished. And this is Kurkdjian’s homage – crafted not from nostalgia, but from reverence.
A Return to La Colle Noire
In 2021, when Francis Kurkdjian became Director of Perfume Creation at Dior, he began a personal ritual: walking through the gardens of Château de La Colle Noire. This estate, once Christian Dior’s refuge in Provence, is more than a residence – it is a place of origin. The paths, terraces, and curated wilderness reflect the sensibilities of a man who understood nature as a language.
Kurkdjian didn’t visit solely for inspiration. He worked. Quietly and deliberately, he helped replant and reshape the grounds. New rows of jasmine. Fresh lily of the valley beds. Roses selected with the attention of a couturier choosing fabric. Kurkdjian returned repeatedly – not just to observe, but to collaborate with the landscape and with time.
Les Récoltes Majeures emerges not as invention, but as a cultivation – drawn from the ground Dior once walked, shaped by a hand that respects both stillness and scent.
Muguet: A Bloom of Belief
The first of May marks the blooming of lily of the valley in French tradition. For Christian Dior, this flower held personal meaning. He stitched it into linings, gifted it in bouquets, and carried it as a talisman. Silent and elusive, it defied distillation. Yet in 1956, Dior captured it in scent with Diorissimo.
Kurkdjian returned to the same flower – not only the species, but the Fortin’s Giant varietal Dior favored. With the help of a botanist, he brought it back to La Colle Noire. The composition that followed came from observation and memory. When the fragrance was complete, Kurkdjian sent a vial to his aunt Françoise, who had once worked with Dior. Her emotional response confirmed the presence of something real.
This is not a flower interpreted through concept. It is the echo of a memory made tangible.
Rose de Mai: Between Light and Structure
If lily of the valley expressed sentiment, then the rose embodied structure. At La Colle Noire, Dior cultivated thousands of roses. Their petals, transformed into absolutes, became the base of his compositions. For this collection, Kurkdjian selected the centifolia rose – cultivated under the Provençal sun.
Instead of emphasizing softness, he focused on form. He walked the fields of Grasse throughout the seasons, waiting for the moment the rose transitions from growth to harvest. That precise instant – the breath between stem and cut – shaped the fragrance.
The result is a rose captured without embellishment. Not stylized, not romanticized, but held with clarity.
Jasmine: The Breath Between Day and Night
Jasmine, the final flower in the trilogy, offers a complex character. Its scent evolves rapidly – green, floral, then deep and animalic. It has always been part of Dior’s story, first appearing in Miss Dior. Here, it is expressed in its own voice.
Kurkdjian used both modern extraction and Grasse savoir-faire to isolate the living presence of the flower. Not the absolute. Not the drydown. The fragrance holds jasmine at its vital moment – fresh, unfiltered, and alive.
At La Colle Noire, jasmine blooms in September. Alongside lily of the valley in May and rose in June, this completes the seasonal arc of Dior’s floral heritage.
The Bottle as Object of Art
For the debut of Les Récoltes Majeures, Dior partnered with Parisian embroidery house Vermont to design sculptural stoppers for the amphora-shaped bottles. Each stopper reinterprets embroidered florals as three-dimensional forms. These limited editions are not simply packaging – they are part of the narrative.
Dior will continue this collaboration annually, inviting artisans to reinterpret the theme, preserving the evolving nature of the collection.
A Modern Classic, Rooted in Intention
Les Récoltes Majeures is not a retrospective. Kurkdjian did not replicate the past. He constructed presence through precision. Minimalism, in this context, means clarity. Each flower is offered without commentary – whole, immediate, and present.
This collection affirms the value of tending, of observation, of stillness. The garden endures. The house remains alive. And the flowers return – season after season.
